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• The Boca Raton Museum of Art Opens "American Treasures"
• Susi Kenna & Allegra LaViola Gallery show Andrea Mary Marshall: "Toxic Women"
• Donald Baechler: Painting & Sculpture at Fisher Landau Center for Art
• Sotheby's to offer Old Master paintings from the Estate of Lady Forte
• The Heide Museum of Modern Art Celebrates its 30th Anniversary with Highlights from the Collection
• The Hepworth Wakefield Shows New Works by Clare Woods
• The National Gallery of Art Exhibits Renaissance Works by Antico
• Norton Simon Museum displays " The Art of War: American Posters from World War I & World War II "
• Guggenheim in Bilbao Displays The Luminous Interval ~ The D. Daskalopoulos Collection
• Brooklyn Museum presents A New Installation of Contemporary Art
• The National Gallery of Art exhibits Stunning and Significant French Drawings
• Dave White ~ Superheroes and Villains ~ at Opus Art, Newcastle
• Fotomuseum Winterthur to Present Exhibition of Power and Violence, Disease & Death
• 'THE NAKED PORTRAIT' at the SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
• Reciprocal Loan Collaboration Between the Frick and Norton Simon Museum
• Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park shows An Exclusive Exhibition by Michele Oka Doner
• Oh l’amour ~ Contemporary Photography from the Stéphane Janssen Collection
• National Gallery of Art opens Baroque Painted Sculptures & Great Spanish Religious Painting
• Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale opens Edward Steichen Fashion Photo Exhibit
• This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News

The Boca Raton Museum of Art Opens "American Treasures" Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:46 PM PST BOCA RATON, FL.- What characterizes a "treasure" and what defines "greatness" in art? The criteria of a "treasure" - whether historical or contemporary - is decided by history. In these revisionist times, artworks, no matter how important they may have been at the time of their creation, are subject to reassessment of how we view the past. On December 13th, the Boca Raton Museum of Art opens American Treasures, an exhibition featuring thirty-six artworks by renowned American artists. The exhibition offers viewers the opportunity to review two centuries of artistic achievement and reflect on the diversity of period styles and individual voices that make up the history of American Art. These enduring masterworks help illuminate our view of modern and contemporary art, by refreshing our sense of historical aesthetic memory. American Treasures presents exquisite examples of old and modern American masterworks, as a checklist of ideas and social values, hopes, dreams and perceived realities. Included are masterworks by Milton Avery, George Bellows, Albert Bierstadt, Charles Burchfield, Thomas Cole, John Steuart Curry, Thomas Eakins, Adolph Gottlieb, Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, Jack Levine, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Andy Warhol, and Andrew Wyeth among others. The Butler Institute of American Art, located in Youngstown, Ohio, opened in 1919 as the first museum dedicated exclusively to American art. It is recognized nationally and internationally as one of America's finest art museums, with holdings now exceeding 20,000 individual works, including important masterpieces spanning four centuries that are now on view at The Boca Raton Museum. Reaching its 60th Anniversary and 10th year in Mizner Park the Boca Raton Museum of Art looks toward the future with renewed enthusiasm. The Museum continues to attract people of all ages with its permanent and traveling exhibitions, educational gallery, and sculpture garden. Lectures, film & video series, docent and cell phone tours, special events, and children and family programming expand the visitors experience throughout the year. A Grand Hallway, stunning Sculpture Garden and large catering kitchen makes the Boca Raton Museum of Art the ideal place for meetings and social gatherings. As "The Official Fine Arts Museum for the City of Boca Raton." the Museum plays a key role in enhancing the cultural, educational, and economic vitality of Boca Raton and its surrounding communities, and has maintained the reputation of being one of South Florida's leading cultural institutions, attracting more than 200,000 visitors annually to its galleries and programs. Visit : http://www.bocamuseum.org/

Susi Kenna & Allegra LaViola Gallery show Andrea Mary Marshall: "Toxic Women" Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:25 PM PST NEW YORK, N.Y.- Susi Kenna and Allegra LaViola Gallery presents the inaugural solo exhibition of Andrea Mary Marshall entitled, Toxic Women. Through a series of provocative self-portraits rendered as paintings, photographs, and film, Marshall examines the intersection of identity, female sexuality, and consumer culture in the context of the "ideal woman." "A Woman is a beast. She is as lovely as she is repulsive. She is one part demon and one part goddess...one part slave, one part muse...one part child and one part mother...these contradictions are what make a woman so intoxicating." - Andrea Mary Marshall. Exhibition on display from December 9th - December 22nd.

Donald Baechler: Painting & Sculpture at Fisher Landau Center for Art Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:08 PM PST NEW YORK, N.Y.- Fisher Landau Center for Art announces an exhibition exploring a wide range of Donald Baechler's artwork in two and three dimensions, created over the last 25 years. In the mid 1980's, the subject matter of his large-scale paintings began quite literally to jump off the walls, transforming into monumental bronze sculptures. Installed on two floors of the Center, the exhibition is made up of work from Fisher Landau Center for Art, supplemented by work from Donald Baecher's personal collection, highlighting the interplay of recurring motifs as they transform from the painted surface to objects in space. In May of 2010, Mrs. Landau made a historic pledge of 417 artworks by nearly 100 artists, to the Whitney Museum of American Art. Excerpts from "Legacy" a traveling exhibition that highlights the gift to the Whitney Museum, will be on view at the Center concurrently with Donald Baechler: Painting & Sculpture.

Sotheby's to offer Old Master paintings from the Estate of Lady Forte Posted: 12 Dec 2011 08:51 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby's New York auction of Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpture on 26 January 2012 will feature three paintings from the estate of Lady Forte, whose husband Charles Forte founded the global hotel and restaurant group Trusthouse Forte. The group comprises: Venice, A View of the Churches of the Redentore and San Giacomo… by iconic Venetian view painter Canaletto, which has not been seen on the market since 1986 (est. $5/7 million*); Jan van Huysum's Still Life of Roses, Tulips, Peonies and Other Flowers in a Sculpted Stone Vase…, which is one of the artist's most accomplished pieces painted on copper (est. $4/6 million); and Interior with a Child Feeding a Parrot, a charming and Vermeer-like work by Pieter de Hooch (est. $1.5/2 million). The works will be on exhibition in Sotheby's York Avenue galleries beginning 22 January, alongside the full sale.

The Heide Museum of Modern Art Celebrates its 30th Anniversary with Highlights from the Collection Posted: 12 Dec 2011 07:06 PM PST Melbourne, Australia.- The Heide Museum of Modern Art is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2011. To celebrate this event, three exhibitions are being show, highlighting the museum's collection by time period. "Forever Young: 30 Years of the Heide Collection" traces the history of the Heide Collection, and brings context and meaning to the story by  following a chronology that aligns with the history of each of the buildings onsite. This is the first ever all-of-site exhibition at Heide and showcases almost 200 works by over 80 artists. In 'Heide I" (on view until April 22nd 2012), some of the earliest works in the Heide Collection are shown, with a focus on an important group of works by the 'first circle' of radical young artists that were supported by art patrons and founders of Heide, John and Sunday Reed when they began collecting in the 1930s. This decade witnessed the initial stirrings of modern art in Australia.

The Hepworth Wakefield Shows New Works by Clare Woods Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:48 PM PST Wakefield, Yorkshire, UK - The Hepworth Wakefield is proud to present "The Unquiet Head", an exhibition of new works by British painter Clare Woods , on view through January 29th 2012. These paintings have been newly commissioned as part of the gallery's temporary exhibitions programme that runs in parallel to its permanent collection displays. Measuring up to 10.5 metres long and 6 metres high, Clare Woods' works respond to the architectural scale of the gallery spaces and explore her close affinity to the work of 20th century British artists with an interest in the landscape and natural forms. Simon Wallis, Director of The Hepworth Wakefield says: "I've had the pleasure of working closely with Clare in the past and I look forward to seeing how she responds to the exquisite gallery spaces that David Chipperfield Architects have created for us and the rich context of our collection."

The National Gallery of Art Exhibits Renaissance Works by Antico Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:47 PM PST Washington, D.C.- The National Gallery of Art is proud to present "Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes" on view through April 8th 2012. Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico (c. 1455–1528), transformed the art of bronze sculpture. His contributions are celebrated in this show, the first monographic exhibition in the United States devoted to the Italian sculptor and goldsmith. The exhibition includes some 40 rare works—medals, reliefs, busts, and Antico's renowned statuettes—more than three-quarters of the sculptor's known works. "Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes" was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with The Frick Collection, New York, where it will be on view from May 1st through July 29th 2012. The exhibition presents 37 masterpieces by Antico, grouped thematically and installed with related works by fellow Gonzaga court artist Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431–1506), Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430/1435–1516), and others. Antico's earliest known work in the exhibition is an elegant portrait medal representing his patron, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (c. 1479–1482), wearing contemporary clothing. In a later medal, he is portrayed as an ancient figure, wearing antique-style Roman drapery. The exhibition includes Antico's finest statuettes, such as the "Seated Nymph" (1503, Robert H. and Clarice Smith), a beautiful example of the rich interplay of gilded, silvered, and patinated surfaces. Highlighting the refinement Antico achieved in the modeling of the hair and drapery, this work is identified through surviving letters as a statuette made for the private study of the famous Marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d'Este. The Seated Nymph is reunited, for the first time, with four other bronze statuettes from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna that were also most likely made for Isabella's study: Hercules and Antaeus (1519), Pan (probably after 1519), Atropos (probably after 1519), and Hercules (probably after 1519). Two sculptures from antiquity that served as models for Antico are on view, offering insights into how he interpreted the classical precedents that are at the core of his artistic output. An example of this relationship in the exhibition is the loan from the Hispanic Society of America, New York, of a marble Roman portrait bust of a young man (c. AD 140–150), which is the source for Antico's "Young Man" (c. 1520, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles). Antico's bronze inventions in turn promoted ancient Roman statuary, such as the Apollo Belvedere, excavated in Rome in 1489, that became widely appreciated through Antico's multiples of small bronzes. Probably born in Mantua, Antico is first documented in 1487. He is known to have been married with children by 1496. Antico spent his entire career in the service of the Gonzaga family. His first patron was Gianfrancesco Gonzaga di Ròdigo, lord of Bozzolo (1446–1496), followed by bishop-elect Ludovico Gonzaga (1460–1511), Gianfrancesco's younger brother. By 1501, Antico was working and living at the court of Gazzuolo, the residence of Gianfrancesco's widow, Antonia del Balzo (c. 1460–1538), and bishop-elect Ludovico. After Ludovico's death, the Marchesa Isabella d'Este (1474-1539) in Mantua became Antico's principal patron. The artist is recorded as restoring antique marble statues in Rome, but his greatest works were commissioned by the Gonzaga family over three generations. Now visited by more than 4.5 million people annually, the National Gallery of Art is now one of the world's leading art museums. The National Gallery of Art was created in 1937 for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress, accepting the gift of financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. Since its inception, the mission of the National Gallery of Art has been to serve the United States of America in a national role by preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and fostering the understanding of works of art, at the highest possible museum and scholarly standards. The original West Building, designed by John Russell Pope (architect of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Archives), is a neoclassical marble masterpiece with a domed rotunda over a colonnaded fountain and high-ceilinged corridors leading to delightful garden courts. At its completion in 1941, the building was the largest marble structure in the world. The modern East Building, designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect I. M. Pei and opened in 1978, is composed of two adjoining triangles with glass walls and lofty tetrahedron skylights. The pink Tennessee marble from which both buildings were constructed was taken from the same quarry and forms an architectural link between the two structures. The East Building provided an additional 56,100 m2 of floor space and accommodated the Gallery's growing collections and expanded exhibition schedule as well as housing an advanced research center, administrative offices, a great library, and a burgeoning collection of drawings and prints. The two buildings are linked by an underground concourse featuring sculptor Leo Villareal's computer-programmed digital light project "Multiverse". On May 23, 1999 the Gallery opened an outdoor sculpture garden located in the 6.1-acre block adjacent to the West Building at 7th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W. The garden provides an informal, yet elegant setting for works of modern and contemporary sculpture. The National Gallery of Art has one of the finest art collections in the world. It was created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress accepting the gift of financier, public servant, and art collector Andrew W. Mellon in 1937. European and American paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, and decorative arts are displayed in the collection galleries and Sculpture Garden. The permanent collection of paintings spans from the Middle Ages to the present day. The strongest collection is the Italian Renaissance collection, which includes two panels from Duccio's Maesta, the great tondo of the "Adoration of the Magi" by Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, a Botticelli on the same subject, Giorgione's Allendale Nativity, Bellini's "The Feast of the Gods", the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Americas, Ginevra de' Benci; and significant groups of works by Titian and Raphael. However, the other European collections include examples of the work of many of the great masters of western painting, including Grünewald, Cranach the Elder, Van der Weyden, Dürer, Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Goya, Ingres, and Delacroix, among others. The collection of sculpture and decorative arts is admittedly not quite as rich as this, but includes such works as the Chalice of Abbot Suger of St-Denis and a superb collection of work by Rodin and Degas. The National Gallery of Art contains three museum shops, three cafes and a bar as well as the Library, a major national art research center serving the Gallery's staff, members of the Center for Advanced Study, visiting scholars, and serious adult researchers. Visit the museum's thorough website at .. http://www.nga.gov

Norton Simon Museum displays " The Art of War: American Posters from World War I & World War II " Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:41 PM PST PASADENA, CA.- The Norton Simon Museum presents The Art of War, an exhibition featuring 33 government-sponsored posters created for the public during World Wars I and II. Chosen from the Museum's extensive collection of 20th-century war posters, these vibrant pieces of visual propaganda have rarely, and in some cases never, been on view. Together, they provide a unique opportunity to examine artworks commissioned by the U.S. government from some of the most important and popular artists of the 20th century. Timed to coincide with the presidential election season, the exhibition is also intended to encourage an exploration of the ongoing dialogue between contemporary politics and visual art. On view September 5, 2008 – January 26, 2009. Organized into four themes—production, conservation, economic sacrifice and general patriotism—the posters present an extraordinary range of artistic techniques. The works from World War I were created during the "Golden Age" of American illustration, when many of the artists were trained in academic ateliers abroad and then honed their skills in the rapidly expanding world of magazine publication back home. Artists featured in the show include James Montgomery Flagg, responsible for the iconic image of Uncle Sam exclaiming, "I Want YOU," as well as popular illustrators Howard Chandler Christy and J. C. Leyendecker. Posters created during World War II present a striking melding of commercial, graphic and fine art, particularly after the advertising industry offered its services to the government in early 1942. In many cases traditional illustrative practices remained, but overall these works strike a far more modern sensibility, owing to the contemporary influences of photography, cinema and design. A threatening image of violence by John Falter and an iconic representation of the American ideal by Norman Rockwell exemplify the great diversity of approaches to inspiring American patriotism.  The Art of War is organized by Leah Lehmbeck, Assistant Curator at the Norton Simon Museum. The collection of war posters was donated to the Norton Simon Museum (then named the Pasadena Art Institute) in 1952 by Helen F. Robinson and Edith Robinson. Some 525 pieces comprise the collection, many of them multiples of the same image. The Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena holds one of the world's finest and most prestigious collections of art.  Reflecting the extraordinary effort and vision of its founder, it stands as a tribute to Human Civilizations, the visual arts, and the nobility of individual accomplishment. The permanent collections consist of Western and Asian art from a period spanning more than 2,000 years.  European and American masterpieces including paintings, sculpture, works on paper and photography are complemented by stunning art works from India and Southeast Asia.  The Museum holds an extensive print collection, which includes rare etchings by Rembrandt and Goya as well as a comprehensive collection of Picasso graphics.  The collection also includes the Galka E. Scheyer Collection of works by the Blue Four artists: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky and Klee. Visit : www.nortonsimon.org/

Guggenheim in Bilbao Displays The Luminous Interval ~ The D. Daskalopoulos Collection Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:40 PM PST BILBAO, SPAIN - The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents The Luminous Interval: The D.Daskalopoulos Collection on view from April 12 through September 11, 2011. This is the first large-scale presentation of one of the world's most significant private collections of contemporary art. Sponsored by Iberdrola and occupying the museum's second floor and part of the first, the exhibition features approximately 60 works by some 30 artists, encompassing a wide range of mediums with a special emphasis on sculpture and environmental installations. Grounded in an assembly of works dating from the 1980s and 1990s by eminent figures such as Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Paul McCarthy, Annette Messager, and Kiki Smith, but also foregrounding projects by younger talents, such as Paul Chan, Guyton\Walker, Nate Lowman, and Wangechi Mutu, the exhibition immerses visitors in a focused survey of some of the most salient artistic developments of the past few decades.

Brooklyn Museum presents A New Installation of Contemporary Art Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:39 PM PST BROOKLYN, NY.- A new installation of contemporary art presents recent acquisitions displayed along with notable works that have entered the collection over the past five decades. The recent acquisitions range from younger artists such as Nina Chanel Abney, Shinique Smith, and Isca Greenfield-Sanders to more established figures such as Mary Heilman, Mitch Epstein, and Lorraine O'Grady. The presentation focuses on familial relationships, broadening the definition of family to include larger groups or communities united by shared values, identities, lifestyles, or emotional needs. Extended Family: Contemporary Connections, now on view through summer of 2010, includes some forty works.

The National Gallery of Art exhibits Stunning and Significant French Drawings Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:38 PM PST WASHINGTON, DC.- Some 135 of the most significant and beautiful drawings made over a period of three centuries by the best French artists working at home and abroad and by foreign artists working in France will be on view in Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500–1800 in the Gallery's West Building from October 1, 2009, through January 31, 2010. This is the first comprehensive exhibition and catalogue to focus on the Gallery's permanent collection of French old master drawings, which is remarkable for its breadth, depth, and individual masterpieces.

Dave White ~ Superheroes and Villains ~ at Opus Art, Newcastle Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:37 PM PST   NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, UK - Opus Art presents Dave White's latest solo show New Paintings, taken from his Superheroes and Villains series, coinciding with the NewcastleGateshead Art Fair. The internationally acclaimed artist continues his dynamic Pop Art style with a collection of large scale oil paintings depicting comic book icons along with his first ever screenprint edition. White's work will also be showcased in a solo show at London's newest art fair, Kounter Kulture. On view 11 September through 6 October, 2008.

Fotomuseum Winterthur to Present Exhibition of Power and Violence, Disease & Death Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:36 PM PST Winterthur, Switzerland - Last year's exhibition "Darkside I – Photographic Desire and Sexuality Photographed" explored the role of photography in the imaging of sexuality and desire. Now, the sequel, "Darkside II", looks at the opposite end of the photographic spectrum, charting the path from the body as a veritable 'picture of health' to the body injured, disfigured or mutilated, in decline and decay.  This raises questions: Why is there an intimate affinity between photography and death? Why does violence attract images? The visual world of western culture is full of images of violence – both random outbursts of violence and military violence, regulative state violence. In a strange reversal, societies have shut away images of life-affirming, life-giving sexuality, banishing them to the fringes of obscurity, whereas images of dark and excessive violence have been brought into the light. The reasons for this are many and complex: These images have a consoling aspect, at the same time they are fascinating and function as memorials, or as enlightening manifestos.

'THE NAKED PORTRAIT' at the SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:35 PM PST   Edinburgh, Scotland - A major new exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery explores the genre of naked portraiture and bring together many of the most significant artists from the past century. In one of the SNPG's most ambitious exhibitions to date, The Naked Portrait embraces both art and photography through the work of over 80 artists from Pierre Bonnard to Tracey Emin. The show, which stretches over two floors of the Gallery, features some 150 examples of the genre, dating from around 1906 to the present day, representing the last century. On exhibition until 2 September, 2007. The Naked Portrait shows how the subject matter has become widespread throughout the period and examine how artists' varied uses of the naked portrait have reflected the rapidly changing cultural and moral landscape of the last century. James Holloway, Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, said: "This is the most ambitious and challenging exhibition that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery has ever mounted. It is the first time that the Gallery has devoted two floors to a show and I am delighted with the response from collectors and galleries from across Europe and America who have promised us a tremendous variety of works of art. This is an exhibition not to be missed." The exhibition will be co-curated by Martin Hammer, Reader in History of Art at The University of Edinburgh and Julie Lawson, Senior Curator at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The Naked Portrait brings together work by a diverse range of artists and photographers, including Egon Schiele, Alfred Steiglitz, Pierre Bonnard, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Stanley Spencer, John Bratby, Richard Avedon, Lucian Freud, Annie Leibovitz, Nan Goldin, Diane Arbus, Helmut Newton, David Bailey, Gilbert and George, Gerhard Richter, John Coplans, Robert Mapplethorpe, Wolfgang Tillmans, Marc Quinn, and Sam Taylor-Wood. Among the works from these artists included in the exhibition is a selection of photographs from Lewis Morley, including Christine Keeler, an early example of a naked portrait circulated in the mass media, capturing the sexual allure of a figure at the centre of the Profumo scandal. The exhibition also features Stanley Spencer's Portrait of Hilda which will sit alongside Hilda Carline's Stanley Spencer. Among the works from Tracey Emin is The Last thing I said to you demonstrating the artist's use of self-portraiture to convey her sense of vulnerability rooted in personal childhood experiences. Melanie Manchot's Mrs Manchot – Hands on Hips shows how naked portraiture has been used to convey the intimate bonds shared between the artist and their family. The photography of Diane Arbus is also represented including Nude Man and Nude Woman and Nude self portrait from the back. Marc Quinn's Catherine Long provides an example of the artist's use of classicism to recognize the challenges of those living with disabilities. The subject matter of the works include men and women of varying ages, disabled and able-bodied and from a wide range of ethnic groups. The relationship between the artist and subject varies from an intimate relationship to the artist not knowing their subject beyond the circumstance of making the picture. Many of the images represent the artists themselves. Themes explored within the exhibition include the challenge to received notions of ideal physical beauty, age identity, the artistic exploration of love and desire, the projection of 'otherness' in terms of social class, race, or celebrity and the fundamentals of the human ageing process and mortality. In order to bring out such themes, it is anticipated that the display will be thematic rather than by date or medium. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery provides a unique visual history of Scotland, told through the portraits of those who shaped it. It explores the lives of great Scots, past and present, who have inspired and changed the world - royals and rebels, poets and philosophers, heroes and villains. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery was the first purpose-built portrait gallery in the world. The impressive building, overlooking Edinburgh's historic New Town, has become a favorite destination for 200,000 locals and tourists every year, with its welcoming mix of special exhibitions, two floors of portraits from the national collection, and its fantastic shop and café. Further information and images from the National Galleries of Scotland visit : www.nationagalleries.org

Reciprocal Loan Collaboration Between the Frick and Norton Simon Museum Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:34 PM PST   NEW YORK, NY - Established decades apart and on separate coasts, New York's Frick Collection and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, CA, are both fine examples of a museum type that focuses on the viewpoint and taste of an individual founder. Henry Clay Frick was by no means the first American to create a museum for the public with his own holdings, but the 1935 opening of the institution bearing his name sparked international headlines and set an example followed subsequently by many others, including Californian Norton Simon. Indeed, exactly four decades later, Simon turned to the Frick as a model for his own institution. It is therefore fitting that the two organizations should one day become collaborators, and this winter, they inaugurate an ongoing reciprocal loan arrangement with the Frick presentation of Masterpieces of European Painting from the Norton Simon Museum. On view in New York from February 10 through May 10 in the Frick's Oval Room will be five sixteenth- and seventeenth-century masterpieces, none of which has left its Southern California home in almost three decades.

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park shows An Exclusive Exhibition by Michele Oka Doner Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:33 PM PST GRAND RAPIDS, MI.- Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, one of the nation's most significant sculpture and botanic experiences, is hosting an exclusive exhibition by American artist Michele Oka Doner. Among the most versatile artists working today, Oka Doner is widely celebrated for her exquisitely beautiful public commissions as well as sculpture, prints, jewelry and functional objects that are now found in public and private collections throughout the world. Spirit and Form: Michele Oka Doner and the Natural World will be on display January 29 through May 9, 2010.

Oh l’amour ~ Contemporary Photography from the Stéphane Janssen Collection Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:32 PM PST TUCSON, AZ - Love—l'amour—is one of art's enduring themes, inspiring collectors as well as creators. Stéphane Janssen, Belgian by birth and resident in Arizona, discovered a love of art in his teenage years. He went on to assemble an extensive and entirely unique collection including almost every creative medium: painting, ceramics, photography, and more. For this exhibition, Janssen generously shares a group of contemporary photographs that reflect his vision as a patron. The Center for Creative Photography's exhibition Oh l'amour: Contemporary Photography from the Stéphane Janssen Collection, will be on view at the Center for Creative Photography through March 1, 2009.

National Gallery of Art opens Baroque Painted Sculptures & Great Spanish Religious Painting Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST Washington, DC - Arrestingly real sculptures and paintings of the saints, the Immaculate Conception, and the Passion of Christ are among some 20 Spanish masterpieces of the 17th century on view in a landmark exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600–1700  will showcase major paintings by Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and Francisco Pacheco, with painted and gilded sculptures carved by Gregorio Fernández, Juan Martínez Montañés, and Pedro de Mena, among others. On view February 28 through 31 May, 2010.

Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale opens Edward Steichen Fashion Photo Exhibit Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:30 PM PST FORT LAUDERDALE (AP).- Images of actresses and models in fashion's finest clothing, many of them looking straight into the camera under dramatic lighting: This is the Edward Steichen of the early 20th century. Steichen, one of the world's most influential photographers, is the subject of an exhibit that has come to the U.S. after starting out in Europe. "Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Conde Nast years, 1923-1937," started last week at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale and runs through April 11. More than 200 of Steichen's celebrity and fashion photos from his years as chief photographer for "Vogue" and "Vanity Fair" magazines are on display. The magazines were published by Conde Nast. "One of the great things about Steichen when you go through the show, it's as if all the women in those images were all born in those clothes," said one of the curators, William Ewing, director of the Musee de l'Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland. "Today nobody looks at a Kate Moss picture and believes she lives in those clothes. There is no credibility to the contemporary fashion photograph. Perhaps that's the aim." Steichen's goal was to make clothes appear appropriate and attainable, Ewing said. "The other thing that was amazing about him is that he never repeated himself," Ewing said. "His signature is that he suppressed his signature ... Steichen was much more modern in the sense that he effaced himself." Many of the black-and-white photographs are of celebrities of the day including Gary Cooper, Adele and Fred Astaire, Katherine Hepburn, Greta Garbo and Amelia Earhart. There were politicians, like Winston Churchill, and even poets, like William Butler Yeats, who posed with his hair askew. French writer Colette is included. Gloria Swanson is depicted with a black veil over her face and actress Joan Crawford is in dress by Elsa Schiaparelli. The photographs are categorized by years. All the photographs in the fashion exhibit are original vintage prints, meaning they were made when the negatives were made. Most came from the Conde Nast archives. The show originally accompanied a Steichen retrospective that toured Europe from 2007 to 2008. The fashion exhibit has since traveled throughout Europe and will go to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., in May. Ewing, along with museum colleague Nathalie Herschdorfer, Todd Brandow at the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, and Carol Squiers, a curator at the International Center for Photography in New York, put together the fashion exhibit. Steichen, who was born in Luxembourg and came to the U.S. with his parents when he was an infant, had become a successful painter and photographer by the time he was offered the position as chief photographer for Conde Nast's two magazines. He worked there 15 years, until 1937. At age 66, he became director of photography for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he put on the famous "The Family of Man," show in 1955 and more than 40 other exhibitions. He died in 1973. "He is one the most important figures in fashion photography," Squiers said. "He really starts to work with the models in terms of trying to portray the modern woman, someone who is forthright." That approach, she said, has influenced contemporary photographers as well. Squiers said Steichen's work shows aspects of others artists of his time. "There is a soft monumentality of Rodin that he brings into his pictures but also the great understanding of abstract form that Brancusi brings," she said. Ewing said he sees the exhibit as two separate archives: fashion and celebrity portraiture. For the Fort Lauderdale exhibit, designer Ivonne de la Vega has created a gown valued at $20,000, which will be raffled off. "He revolutionized fashion photography and pioneered a new visual language of glamour, profoundly shaping the look of celebrity and fashion to this day," said Irvin Lippman, executive director at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

This Week in Review in Art Knowledge News Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:29 PM PST This is a new feature for the subscribers and visitors to Art Knowledge News (AKN), that will enable you to see "thumbnail descriptions" of the last ninety (90) articles and art images that we published. This will allow you to visit any article that you may have missed ; or re-visit any article or image of particular interest. Every day the article "thumbnail images" will change. For you to see the entire last ninety images just click : here . When opened that also will allow you to change the language from English to anyone of 54 other languages, by clicking your language choice on the upper left corner of our Home Page.  You can share any article we publish with the eleven (11) social websites we offer like Twitter, Flicker, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. by one click on the image shown at the end of each opened article.  Last, but not least, you can email or print any entire article by using an icon visible to the right side of an article's headline.

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